Bowl

Object Type
This hemispherical bowl, mounted on a circular foot, would have served either as a bread basket or fruit bowl on the dining room table.

Materials & Making
This bowl is made from Sheffield plate, with the body and foot formed by a series of wire loop held within wire ribbon borders. When plated wire first came to be used, in the early days of the industry, it was manufactured from hollow tubing, formed of either copper or brass, around which a very thin fused sheet was secured. However, because of its vulnerability to wear, this method was superseded in 1768 when solid plated wire was introduced. This in turn was replaced in about 1780 by a simpler process.This involved a round bar of copper, cleaned and burnished, around which a sheet of fine silver was wrapped and fused to the copper. After this composite was formed it was drawn through a whortle (a steel plate with shaped apertures through which the wire was repeatedly extruded until the required fineness was obtained).

People
The process developed about 1780 became the standard procedure, and its invention is attributed to two young men, Wilks and Motteram, both former apprentices of Matthew Boulton (1728-1809). They were reported to have withheld the secret during their apprenticeship. After serving his time with Boulton, Wilks eventually moved to Sheffield and commenced business with Mark Dixon in 1785.